BELGRADE, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Agreements aiming to expand blooming cooperation in investments and trade to the field of modern technologies and arms industry were signed in Belgrade on Wednesday in presence of presidents of Serbia and Czech Republic Aleksandar Vucic and Milos Zeman.
Within Zeman's two-day official visit to Serbia, the two countries concluded an agreement on cooperation in the area of defense, which was signed here by defense ministers Aleksandar Vulin and Lubomir Metnar.
Moreover, the memorandum on cooperation in the area of innovations, artificial intelligence and robotics was signed between Serbian minister in charge of innovations and technological development Nenad Popovic and Czech minister of industry and trade Karel Havlicek.
At a press conference at the Palace of Serbia, Vucic said that the relations between the two countries are at the "highest level", especially when it comes to trade and investments.
"We can boast with the fact that we more than tripled our trade since 2008," Vucic said explaining that last year trade exceeded 1 billion euros (1.1 billion U.S. dollars), while this year it is expected to be around 1.15 billion euros.
He said Czech Republic is the fourth ranked country when it comes to the value of company investments in Serbia.
Vucic expressed the intention to build those ties further by expanding the cooperation to more fields of interest.
"The cooperation in science, artificial intelligence and robotics is of special importance, and I believe that we will find common interests in the area of defense industry too," Vucic said.
He and Zeman also talked about Serbia's ongoing European integrations. Vucic told Zeman that he "hopes that Serbia will be able to secure interests of its national and state interests despite hardships, while at the same time providing better living standard to people".
Noting that the two countries are of similar size and that throughout history they have been sharing the same destiny, Zeman encouraged Serbia to continue with its wide approach to international cooperation.
A business forum of 180 Serbian and 50 Czech companies was staged during the presidential visit, where representatives discussed concrete projects and ways to enhance cooperation.
